Tuesday, May 6, 2008

time flies when your having fun!

last night I returned home from my whirlwind weekend in metro dc. I do believe may is my absolute favorite time of the year to visit -- everything is in bloom and it's before the oppressive heat and humidity of a d.c summer hits. I had a wonderful time visiting with both blood kin and fictive blogging kin! unfortunately I didn't get to visit everyone I would have liked to have seen - time does indeed fly when one is having fun!

I had a lovely time with my family, we celebrated my mother's may day birthday in a number of ways over the course of a few days. on thursday my mother, father, and I started the birthday celebration with a lovely luncheon out. as we were driving home after lunch, we passed a giant supermarket called "el grande supermercado." I asked my mother if she had ever been inside, she said she's always wanted to visit, but the size of the place was a bit intimidating and she thought she'd have more fun if she could check it out with someone else. well, long story short, we stopped and found ourselves inside an international food-lovers (and bargain hunters) paradise! one of my favorite areas was the fish counter with it's huge tank of live fish, crate of live blue crabs and pre-packed fish heads.

friday I spent most of the day playing in the dirt, planting flowers in beds and containers. that evening my brother, a nephew and his girlfriend came over. after visiting for a bit at my folks home, we went out for an very enjoyable dinner. my brother mentioned to the server that we were there for my mother's birthday - and weren't we surprised when the check came and we found the restaurant joined the celebration and knocked fifteen bucks off the bill! no wonder why this place is my parents favorite place to go out for dinner.

my mother and I share a passion for movies and on saturday morning we indulged ourselves with taking in a 10 am film at the local art theater. we saw the visitor - my mother and I give it four enthusiastic thumbs up!

saturday afternoon I set off to for the first annual maypole blogging party. it was a great time. absolutely fantastic! and you can read all about it here, here, here, and here. missing from these marvelous accounts is mention of the marmite lettuce brought over for this marmite-loving mouse. go figure!

on sunday I was blessed with being able to spend the day with lettuce on the last day of her grand tour. the weather was absolutely fabulous. d.c. sparkled with bright sunshine, joyful throngs of tourists and a city ablaze with the colors of springtime flowers. in addition to just walking about soaking in the city's energy, lettuce and I visited the national museum of the american indian and the united states botanic garden. among several shared passions, lettuce and I discovered that we both could get quite carried away with the most silly of tangents. evidenced by the following slide show. I do believe there is a terrific children's book found among these odd plant names!

my flight back to cleveland was smooth - I'm quite spoiled now - 45 minutes between cleveland and washington d.c. versus 6 to 7 hours by car or almost 12 hours by greyhound! perhaps I'll get some sort of environmental dispensation for flying since I no longer have a car?

15 comments:

WoW ! What a good visit you had! As always, your photos are such a treat. I would love to go to DC again - so much more that I would now appreciate. It's the old story of you don't bother to go when you live there and then miss it when you move ! Be happy. Be well.

Another great trip chock full of good stuff. I love that your mom and you are able to enjoy going to the movies like that. That sounds terrific. "El Grande Supermercado" sounds like a digestive paradise! AHAHAHA! Any Latino market like that is gonna be loaded with some damn good food and pretty bargain prices, 'cause my people love to eat! Kilroy's sounds like my place, I LOVE STEAK!

And last but not least, that's an aerial shot of Cleveland I presume? Awesome.

marie - hope you make it....let me know if you do schedule a trip - I'll take any excuse to go down for a visit with my folks.

av - yum marmite!

junk thief... keep me posted if you decide to check some of our glamor.

barb - the funny signs definitely don't do the garden justice - GO!! and there's a brand new outdoor section! hugs to david and jake!

wat - one of my earliest movie memories is going to see 'cleopatra' when it opened with my mother - that would have been 1963 and I would have been 8! at 14 my mom took me to see midnight cowboy when it opened -- I'd say when I was a kid my mom has always been ahead of the curve when it came to film outings and as such we pretty much enjoy all movies together!

I thought el grande supermercado was going to be solely a latin market - boy was I mistaken - there was food from all over. the produce was something else.... huge, huge asian food section, I'm thinking I should probably do a slide show just on this store!

ched u - I have so many homes....

aileen - great to meet you. am so glad you caught the movie. I won't mind seeing it again with my cleveland movie buds if they are interested! it's that good!

intact - do you need a place to stay? mi casa es su casa!

ched - shit I've got roly poly fish heads now rolling around in my head....of course I remember this tune! it's a great song to sing to kids and I do love singing with kids! of course when they get to be around 8 they tell me to BE QUIET but hey, I do get 8 good years in before they realize I'm no joni!

lettie - I am truly incorrigible when it comes to snapping away! thank god for digital, or we'd be completely destitute. I hope we'll have other photo safaris in the years to come - it was much fun. and sharing silliness is the best!

dd - that it was!! best get off for my morning toast with marmite!!!! yum!!!

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unless noted otherwise, all photos on the mouse are taken by me, kim yanoshik. you are welcome to use them if credit is given. if you seek to make a profit, you need to first ask permission to use the photo; then you are obliged to share that profit with yours truly, otherwise karma will catch up with you!